Entrepreneurship is about finding the pain in the marketplace, and then finding an aspirin to cure that pain. Take a look at this article from Reuters today by Deborah Cohen about an entrepreneur who took something he saw in a different country, and applied that notion to a problem here in the USA. From the article:
(Michael) Dwork found himself marveling at the sight of the makeshift plates local peasant women were hand-crafting from fallen palm leaves, which they pressed in crude ovens along the side of the road.
"They looked absolutely horrible, covered in mold," recalled Dwork. "I totally fell in love with them. There was no design, there was no sanitary production, there were no 50 other things, but at the end of the day, the concept was really cool."
The natural process gave Dwork the idea to start VerTerra Dinnerware, an eco-friendly maker of compostable plates, bowls and serving dishes. Fast-forward to today and VerTerra (www.verterra.com) is a growing, Brooklyn, New York-based startup that produces a million pieces of disposable dinnerware in its India factory every month. The company supplies these products to wholesale customers, such as hotels and caterers, as well as food service operators, including those serving meals in the box seats at Cowboys Stadium and the U.S. food tent at the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
In the past year, retail customers have joined the mix. Half of Whole Foods' U.S. stores now carry the plates, which retail at 50-75 cents per piece, and VerTerra has been promised distribution throughout the organic grocery chain's full system by early next year.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Start-Up Nation Israel
When you hear about something once, you take note of it. When you hear about it a few days later while in a different city, you start thinking about it. And when you read about it the following week in the Wall Street Journal, you decide that you better seriously pay attention.
Two weeks ago, one of our Whitman School of Management professors walked into my office and told me about a new book called, Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. Then a week later, when Mike and I were visiting the Small Business Administration in Washington DC, Bill Ellmore mentioned the book. And then today, in the Wall Street Journal there is a very favorable review. What caught everyone’s attention was the author’s comments about the startup culture in Israel and its relationship with their military. The authors contend that Israel has a very unique entrepreneurial culture that leads to entrepreneurial success. Where does that culture come from? Read from the review:
Mainly, the Israeli military."You have minimal guidance from the top," Messrs. Senor and Singer write, "and are expected to improvise, even if this means breaking some rules. If you're a junior officer, you call your higher-ups by their first names, and if you see them doing something wrong, you say so." High-school stand-outs are recruited into elite military units and trained intensively, with an emphasis on technology. When they're done, everything required to launch a start-up "will be a phone call away. . . . Almost everyone can find some connection to whomever he or she needs to contact to get started." Israel is a country, it seems, where everyone knows everyone.
It is also a country with mandatory military service before college. For nations that want to emulate Israel's start-up success, Messrs. Senor and Singer advocate similar mandatory service, military or otherwise, to get "something like the leadership, teamwork, and mission-oriented skills and experience Israelis receive." The trick is to combine what's learned in the Israeli Defense Forces (or its non-defense equivalent elsewhere) with an almost abrasive individualism and the kind of self-reliance that occurs in a country that has to go it alone to survive.”
Here is the link to the entire review by James Glassman: Where Tech Keeps Booming.
Two weeks ago, one of our Whitman School of Management professors walked into my office and told me about a new book called, Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. Then a week later, when Mike and I were visiting the Small Business Administration in Washington DC, Bill Ellmore mentioned the book. And then today, in the Wall Street Journal there is a very favorable review. What caught everyone’s attention was the author’s comments about the startup culture in Israel and its relationship with their military. The authors contend that Israel has a very unique entrepreneurial culture that leads to entrepreneurial success. Where does that culture come from? Read from the review:
Mainly, the Israeli military."You have minimal guidance from the top," Messrs. Senor and Singer write, "and are expected to improvise, even if this means breaking some rules. If you're a junior officer, you call your higher-ups by their first names, and if you see them doing something wrong, you say so." High-school stand-outs are recruited into elite military units and trained intensively, with an emphasis on technology. When they're done, everything required to launch a start-up "will be a phone call away. . . . Almost everyone can find some connection to whomever he or she needs to contact to get started." Israel is a country, it seems, where everyone knows everyone.
It is also a country with mandatory military service before college. For nations that want to emulate Israel's start-up success, Messrs. Senor and Singer advocate similar mandatory service, military or otherwise, to get "something like the leadership, teamwork, and mission-oriented skills and experience Israelis receive." The trick is to combine what's learned in the Israeli Defense Forces (or its non-defense equivalent elsewhere) with an almost abrasive individualism and the kind of self-reliance that occurs in a country that has to go it alone to survive.”
Here is the link to the entire review by James Glassman: Where Tech Keeps Booming.
The Art of the Exit
We always talk to our students about the importance of knowing the exit strategy for your company. It’s critical if you’re looking for angel or VC money to know what type of company might be your exit, but it’s also important even if you’re not looking for outside money because there might be a time that you or your partner(should you have one), decide that you'd like to try a new challenge. Here is an interesting article on what the author is calling the Art of the Exit.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Setbacks
Visiting today with local entrepreneur Bruce Dew, and we were talking about the setbacks that we sometimes run into when we’re launching and growing our businesses. I told him that one of my friends likes to say he has “started 10 companies…three that were successful and seven that I don’t talk about.” Bruce gave me an equally wonderful phrase about dealing with those times when things don’t work out. As he put it: “ A set-back is a set-up for the come-back.”
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Elephant in Your Room
Interesting posts coming from the blog, Both Sides of the Room by Mark Suster, entrepreneur turned VC. I particularly liked his recent post on Dealing with the Elephant in the Room.
There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants” then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking. There’s a lot of truth in this adage. It’s sometimes called “The Elephant in the Room” because even when you don’t mention not to think about an Elephant there are certain issues that you just can’t stop thinking about whether they are brought up or not.
Many businesses that pitch to me have Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. Elephant issues are those things that the VC would automatically be thinking about when you’re speaking but he/she may not immediately ask you about either for legal reasons or out of courtesy.
But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. I’d like to separate these from skeletons in your closet which are issues that the VC would have no idea about when you’re meeting but might discover later during due diligence.
You might want to include Mark’s blog as part of your must-reading list.
There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants” then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking. There’s a lot of truth in this adage. It’s sometimes called “The Elephant in the Room” because even when you don’t mention not to think about an Elephant there are certain issues that you just can’t stop thinking about whether they are brought up or not.
Many businesses that pitch to me have Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. Elephant issues are those things that the VC would automatically be thinking about when you’re speaking but he/she may not immediately ask you about either for legal reasons or out of courtesy.
But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. I’d like to separate these from skeletons in your closet which are issues that the VC would have no idea about when you’re meeting but might discover later during due diligence.
You might want to include Mark’s blog as part of your must-reading list.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Entrepreneurs and the Economy
If you haven’t seen the article in the Opinion section of the Wall Street Journal today written by Carl Schramm, Robert Litan and Dane Stangler of the Kauffman Foundation, you should. The article, titled New Business, Not Small Business, Is What Creates Jobs, is a wonderful piece reminding all (especially those in Washington) of the importance that entrepreneurs play in our economy. It also has some interesting suggestions that all, even those in academia, should consider.
Facebook and the Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur from LA sent over this article by Dan Fost from the Los Angeles Times on using Facebook for your small business. From the article, which is titled Facebook Becoming Big Friend to Small Businesses:
Businesses need to go where their customers are, and increasingly these days, that's on Facebook and other social media sites, analysts say. More than 300 million people have signed up for Facebook, and half of them visit the site every day.
"Over the past two years, we've seen this increasing uptick in businesses realizing that their customers are on Facebook," said Tim Kendall, Facebook's director of monetization product marketing. "If they can create a presence in Facebook that allows customers to connect with them, it can be a way to strengthen that connection and also to find new customers.
"Plenty of other sites are also wooing small local businesses. The review site Yelp, Citysearch and a host of Yellow Pages sites are all making a push.And typically, businesses don't stick to one site such as Facebook. Instead, they spread their presence across the social media landscape, including MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. Increasingly, these sites connect with one another so that a status update on Facebook becomes a tweet on Twitter, or a blog post could be pushed out to several sites.
Businesses need to go where their customers are, and increasingly these days, that's on Facebook and other social media sites, analysts say. More than 300 million people have signed up for Facebook, and half of them visit the site every day.
"Over the past two years, we've seen this increasing uptick in businesses realizing that their customers are on Facebook," said Tim Kendall, Facebook's director of monetization product marketing. "If they can create a presence in Facebook that allows customers to connect with them, it can be a way to strengthen that connection and also to find new customers.
"Plenty of other sites are also wooing small local businesses. The review site Yelp, Citysearch and a host of Yellow Pages sites are all making a push.And typically, businesses don't stick to one site such as Facebook. Instead, they spread their presence across the social media landscape, including MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. Increasingly, these sites connect with one another so that a status update on Facebook becomes a tweet on Twitter, or a blog post could be pushed out to several sites.
Soda Pop!
We like to say in entrepreneurship that it’s all about the passion for your venture. After hearing John Hendricks of Discovery Channel talk recently, I’m amending that to say it’s about passion bordering on obsession that’s needed to make a business a success. Take a look at this video of an entrepreneur who is exactly that about his business.
http://videos.komando.com/2009/10/11/amazing-soda-shop/
http://videos.komando.com/2009/10/11/amazing-soda-shop/
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tell a Story
I love stories…maybe it’s my heritage in working for Disney, or maybe it’s just because I think they are a wonderful vehicle to tell about projects or programs…better than reciting a mind-numbing list of facts and figures. To the point of storytelling, my friend Dwain Deville, just sent over this article from Business Week.
From the article:
Tell classic stories. Most reporters don't care about a tiny startup, and that's why Benioff never positioned himself as such. He told a classic David-vs.-Goliath story. "We gave the media something different. We gave them something new. We always positioned ourselves as revolutionaries. We went after the largest competitor in the industry or the industry itself. We made our story about change. We were about something new and different that was good for customers, and good for the community. We talked about the future." Although the media landscape is changing, Benioff believes there will always be a need for content. The delivery model might be changing, but exchanging and sharing stories and information remains as important as ever.
Make your own metaphors. According to Benioff, simple metaphors are a terrific way to communicate your message. "I spend a lot of time creating metaphors to explain what we do. For example, early on I explained what we did with the metaphor "salesforce.com is Amazon.com (AMZN) meets Siebel Systems." Later when we launched AppExchange we called it "the eBay (EBAY) of enterprise software." Anyone can create their own metaphors, says Benioff. "Just remember to test them before you put them out there. Try a few and run them by customers, analysts, and people in your network to make sure they work."
I’d add that even if you’re not dealing with reporters, but instead are talking to board members, funding sources, stakeholders, friends of your program, etc…stories are a powerful way to get your message across. And what’s best, if your Board members hears a story, it then becomes a story that he/she can tell and it gets your message out even further into the community. Think stories…gather them, edit them and tell them to get your message out in way that facts and figures never can.
From the article:
Tell classic stories. Most reporters don't care about a tiny startup, and that's why Benioff never positioned himself as such. He told a classic David-vs.-Goliath story. "We gave the media something different. We gave them something new. We always positioned ourselves as revolutionaries. We went after the largest competitor in the industry or the industry itself. We made our story about change. We were about something new and different that was good for customers, and good for the community. We talked about the future." Although the media landscape is changing, Benioff believes there will always be a need for content. The delivery model might be changing, but exchanging and sharing stories and information remains as important as ever.
Make your own metaphors. According to Benioff, simple metaphors are a terrific way to communicate your message. "I spend a lot of time creating metaphors to explain what we do. For example, early on I explained what we did with the metaphor "salesforce.com is Amazon.com (AMZN) meets Siebel Systems." Later when we launched AppExchange we called it "the eBay (EBAY) of enterprise software." Anyone can create their own metaphors, says Benioff. "Just remember to test them before you put them out there. Try a few and run them by customers, analysts, and people in your network to make sure they work."
I’d add that even if you’re not dealing with reporters, but instead are talking to board members, funding sources, stakeholders, friends of your program, etc…stories are a powerful way to get your message across. And what’s best, if your Board members hears a story, it then becomes a story that he/she can tell and it gets your message out even further into the community. Think stories…gather them, edit them and tell them to get your message out in way that facts and figures never can.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Women Owned Businesses
In case you haven’t heard, the number of women owned businesses are on the rise. The Center for Women’s Business Research released their latest report and as reported in a story by Mickey Meese of the NY Times, the report estimates that “eight million businesses — or 28 percent of all businesses — were owned by women, and that those businesses created or maintained 16 percent of all jobs in a range of industries like business services, personal services, retail, health care, communications and real estate.” Here is the link to the rest of the story, One in Four Businesses Calls the Owner ‘Ma’am’. You might also want to visit the Center’s website for more information on this growing sector of business.
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